White Matter Microstructure and the General Psychopathology Factor in Children

Objective: Co-occurrence of behavioral and emotional problems in childhood is widespread, and previous studies have suggested that this reflects vulnerability to experience a range of psychiatric problems, often termed a general psychopathology factor. However, the neurobiological substrate of this general factor is not well understood. We tested the hypothesis that lower overall white matter microstructure is associated with higher levels of the general psychopathology factor in children and less with specific factors. Method: Global white matter microstructure at age 10 years was related to general and specific psychopathology factors. These factors were estimated using a latent bifactor model with multiple informants and instruments between ages 6 and 10 years in 3,030 children from the population-based birth cohort Generation R. The association of global white matter microstructure and the psychopathology factors was examined with a structural equation model adjusted for sex, age at scan, age at psychopathology assessment, parental education/income, and genetic ancestry. Results: A 1-SD increase of the global white matter factor was associated with a β = −0.07SD (standard error [SE] = 0.02, p < .01) decrease in general psychopathology. In contrast, a 1-SD increase of white matter microstructure predicted an increase of β = +0.07 SD (SE = 0.03, p < .01) specific externalizing factor levels. No association was found with the specific internalizing and specific attention factor. Conclusion: The results suggest that general psychopathology in childhood is related to white matter structure across the brain and not only to specific tracts. Taking into account general psychopathology may also help reveal neurobiological mechanisms behind specific symptoms that are otherwise obscured by comorbidity

The Nature Drawings of Peter Karklins

https://via.library.depaul.edu/museum-publications/1010/thumbnail.jp

Pregnancy and Mental Health of Young Homeless Women

Pregnancy rates among women in the U.S. who are homeless are much higher than rates among women who are housed (Greene & Ringwalt, 1998). Yet little research has addressed mental health, risk and resilience among young mothers who are homeless. This study utilizes a sample of women from the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Homeless Adolescents (MLSHA) to investigate pregnancy and motherhood over three years among unaccompanied homeless young mothers. Our data are supplemented by in-depth interviews with a subset of these women. Results show that almost half of sexually active young women (n = 222, μ age = 17.2) had been pregnant at baseline (46.4%), and among the longitudinal subsample of 171 women (μ age = 17.2), almost 70.0% had been pregnant by the end of the study. Among young mothers who are homeless, only half reported that they helped to care for their children consistently over time, and one-fifth of the women reported never seeing their children. Of the young women with children in their care at the last interview of the study (Wave 13), almost one-third met criteria for lifetime major depressive episode (MDE), lifetime posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and lifetime drug abuse, and onehalf met criteria for lifetime antisocial personality disorder (APD). Twelve-month diagnoses are also reported. The impacts of homelessness on maternal and child outcomes are discussed, including the implications for practice, policy, and research

Re-evaluation of the latent structure of common childhood disorders: is there a general psychopathology factor (P-factor)?

In the field of psychopathology, there is high comorbidity between different disorders. Traditionally, support for two broad correlated dimensions of internalizing and externalizing symptoms has consistently emerged for children and adolescents. To date, oblique 2 and 3 first-order factor models (factors for externalizing and internalizing, and fear, distress, and externalizing) and bi-factor models with the corresponding two and three group factors have been suggested for common internalizing and eternalizing child and adolescent disorders. The present study used confirmatory factor analyses to examine the relative support for these models in adolescents (≥ 12 to 18 years; N = 866) and children (6 to < 12 years; N = 1233) and the reliability and convergent and divergent validities of the psychopathology factor (P-factor) and group factors in the optimum bi-factor model. All participants were from a clinic and underwent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition clinical diagnosis. The findings showed that the bi-factor model with two group factors (internalizing and externalizing) was the optimum model for both children and adolescents. For both groups, findings showed relatively higher reliability for the P-factor than the group factors, although the externalizing group factor showed substantial reliability in adolescents, and both the externalizing and internalizing group factors also showed substantial reliability in children. The factors of the optimum bi-factor model also showed good convergent and discriminant validities. The implications for theory and clinical and research practice related to psychopathology are discussed

The eyes have it: using eye tracking to inform information processing strategies in multi‐attributes choices

Although choice experiments (CEs) are widely applied in economics to study choice behaviour, understanding of how individuals process attribute information remains limited. We show how eye‐tracking methods can provide insight into how decisions are made. Participants completed a CE, while their eye movements were recorded. Results show that although the information presented guided participants' decisions, there were also several processing biases at work. Evidence was found of (a) top‐to‐bottom, (b) left‐to‐right, and (c) first‐to‐last order biases. Experimental factors—whether attributes are defined as “best” or “worst,” choice task complexity, and attribute ordering—also influence information processing. How individuals visually process attribute information was shown to be related to their choices. Implications for the design and analysis of CEs and future research are discussed

Neuroticism and extraversion in youth predict mental wellbeing and life satisfaction 40 years later

Neuroticism and Extraversion are linked with current wellbeing, but it is unclear whether these traits in youth predict wellbeing decades later. We applied structural equation modelling to data from 4583 people from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. We examined the effects of Neuroticism and Extraversion at ages 16 and 26 years on mental wellbeing and life satisfaction at age 60-64 and explored the mediating roles of psychological and physical health. Extraversion had direct, positive effects on both measures of wellbeing. The impact of Neuroticism on both wellbeing and life satisfaction was largely indirect through susceptibility to psychological distress and physical health problems. Personality dispositions in youth have enduring influence on wellbeing assessed about forty years later

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Long Chain Fatty Acid Storage Dynamics and Nuclear Receptor Activation in Failing Hearts

Intramyocardial triglyceride (TG) turnover is reduced in hypertrophied, failing hearts, limiting availability of this rich source of stored long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) for mitochondrial oxidation and nuclear receptor activation. The two major dietary LCFAs, palmitate and oleate, differentially influence TG turnover in normal and hypertrophied rat hearts with dramatic effects on contractility and transcription. In contrast to palmitate, oleate induced normal TG content and elevated turnover rates in decompensated, hypertrophic hearts. Normalized lipid dynamics with oleate in the hypertrophied heart resulted in normalized peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPAR-α) target gene expression and mitochondrial oxidation of TG. Oleate supply to failing hearts also averted an increase in the lipotoxic acyl intermediate C16 ceramide, associated with improved cardiac contractility. The findings link reduced intracellular lipid storage dynamics to impaired PPAR-α signaling and contractility in diseased hearts and indicate a rate-dependent lipolytic activation of PPAR-α. In decompensated hearts, oleate may serve as a beneficial energy substrate versus palmitate, to confer improved TG dynamics and nuclear receptor signaling. As part of an overall programmatic shift in lipid handling enzymes, hypertrophied hearts demonstrate increased cytosolic malic enzyme 1 (ME1) expression which upregulates anaplerotic flux into the second span of the cycle by carboxylating glycolytic pyruvate, forming malate. ME1 is known to be lipogenic in other tissue types, generating NADPH and pyruvate from malate. However, reverse flux that consumes pyruvate and NADPH in hypertrophied myocardium appears to be maladaptive, as this alternative route of entry into the TCA cycle is inefficient compared to pyruvate decarboxylation into acetyl-CoA by pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC). Numerous NADH-producing reactions are bypassed, contributing to a net loss of ATP per glycolytic carbon. Furthermore, the carboxylation reaction consumes NADPH, depleting the cardiomyocyte of a critical cofactor for maintaining TG stores and intracellular redox state. We tested the effects of cardiac-specific knockdown of ME1 in hypertrophied hearts via delivery of adenovirus containing non-native microRNA targeted to ME1 mRNA. Knockdown of ME1 returned anaplerosis to normal low levels and increased glutathione content in hypertrophy

Computerizing audit studies

This paper briefly discusses the history, benefits, and shortcomings of traditional audit field experiments to study market discrimination. Specifically it identifies template bias and experimenter bias as major concerns in the traditional audit method and demonstrates through an empirical example that computerization of a resume or correspondence audit can efficiently increase sample size and greatly mitigate these concerns. Finally, it presents a useful meta-tool that future researchers can use to create their own resume audits.Field experiment Audit Discrimination Resum